Euronews

Libya’s former spy chief Abdullah al-Senussi is being held in Tripoli after being extradited from Mauritania.

He was escorted off the plane by Libya’s new military head Yousef Mangoush.

“The office of the prosecutor general has received Senussi and he will undergo a number of medical tests. Soon he will also undergo interrogation for the cases he has been charged with,” said prosecutor general spokesman Taha Ba’ra.

One of the most feared members of former leader Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, Senussi was captured in the West African state of Mauritania in March.

That led to a tug of war between Libya, France and the International Criminal Court for his extradition.

“He was extradited to Libya on the basis of guarantees given by Libyan authorities,” a Mauritanian government source told Reuters, without giving details on the guarantees.

A spokesman for the ICC, which has wanted to try Senussi on charges of crimes against humanity including murder and persecution, said it had received no information about a handover to Libyan authorities in Tripoli.

In its warrant for Senussi’s arrest, the Hague-based ICC said he had used his position of command to have attacks carried out against opponents of Gaddafi, who was hunted down and killed by rebels after his ouster in August last year.

France has wanted to try Senussi in connection with a 1989 airliner bombing over Niger in which 54 of its nationals died.

Senussi has also been linked to the 1988 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland of an American PanAm jet that killed 270 people. Diplomatic sources have said the United States was keen to question him about that attack.